Page 68 of Her Wicked Duke
“The difference is that shewantedme.” Alexander dropped down to one knee, yanking him up by the scruff of his neck.
Patrick’s face was smeared with dirt. This was the man who had put so much fear into Anne that she had been terrified to go anywhere, always glancing around herself, had moved homes—only to unknowingly end up closer to him.
“You disgust me. You are a coward, Lord Yore.”
“I am!” Patrick admitted. “I am, and it was because I knew I could not love her openly, as she deserved. Not yet, anyway, but I can! I know she loves me, too. I only need to encourage her a little and?—”
Alexander shoved Patrick’s face back into the ground, muffling the end of his sentence. When he pulled him back up, the expression on his face had changed.
Patrick smirked at Alexander, no longer a wailing, puny man. “I have touched her, Your Grace,” he said calmly. “I have touched her in ways you have. Except, I have been able to touch her and be free of the gossip.”
“Lies,” Alexander growled.
“Arethey?”
He would not let himself be manipulated by this coward!
“I have dreamed of her body,” Patrick said. “Every curve, every line, every caress I might be rewarded with one day. And Iwillif I can just get my hands on her once again.Youstand in my way, Your Grace. I had hoped to delay Anne so her brother would kill you, and then I would have been free to ask her to run away with me. I would leave this all behind for her. Can you say the same, Your Grace? Can you say that you would give up everything for her happiness?”
“You will never be the reason behind her happiness,” Alexander spat. “I can assure you of that.”
“Her skin feels gloriously smooth, doesn’t it, Your Grace?” Patrick laughed. “It is pure silk.”
“Why have you tormented her so, all this time?” Alexander demanded.
“She is young and beautiful,” Patrick explained. “Unlike her sister. Mary is passable enough, but she is no Anne.”
Every word spilling out of his mouth made Alexander’s fury grow hotter. He wanted to get revenge for Anne. He wanted to do painful things to him that would make his grandmother send him to church to confess his sins. He wanted to be every inch the dangerous man everyone claimed him to be.
Except, he heard Anne calling his name, and he turned toward her. If he was going to be worthy of her, he needed to prove to her that he had changed and that he was not the dangerous, heartless man the ton claimed he was.
“Would you write her love letters, Your Grace?” Patrick asked. “Would you wait for her from afar until she is ready to receive your affections? Would you wait in the shadows until she is not chaperoned any longer? Because I did all that, just for one stolen moment with her. She wanted me, I know she did. If for a brief moment, she did.”
It was all lies. Alexander did not fall for them for one second.
“She has been polite and good to me, Your Grace,” Patrick continued. “I understand the tells of a woman’s affections.”
Alexander flipped him on his back and raised his fist. “Perhaps you will understand this, then, Lord Yore.”
He punched him in the face, letting out his pent-up adrenaline, anger, and worries from the past week. Then, he dragged him up by the collar.
“A woman’s polite kindness toward you doesnotequal her affection. And I swear to you, Sir, that I will see you rot in prison for harassing her, for every day and night she spent looking over her shoulder—you’ll pay for it.”
Patrick only laughed and spit out the blood in his mouth from the force of the punch. “And what will you get? Anne does not want you.”
The verbal blow landed just as hard as a physical one would, but Alexander steeled himself. He would give himself a chance, give Anne another chance, ask her for one more chance as well, to win her affections properly.
“It is too late, you see, Lord Yore,” Alexander drawled. “See, last night, I wrote your wife a letter. Anne gave me one of the letters you sent her some weeks ago. I enclosed it with my letter to Mary. I told her you were Anne’s stalker and detailed everything I knew about you. I told her she could decide how she deals with it, and I told her about the duel today. I told her that Anne might try to find a way to stop it without getting anybody into trouble.
“You were the only logical choice she might go to. After all, in her eyes, you have helped her before by letting her stay over fora while. She would want to keep the duel a secret to mitigate any consequences. I gently suggested to Mary you might get involved in this duel, especially in pursuit of Anne, if you thought I might be out of your way.”
Soon, shouts came down the hill, and Alexander smiled. Patrick struggled against his grasp before landing a sneaky punch and rolling away from him.
Patrick got to his feet quickly, stumbling as he ran off, hearing the shouts. No doubt he had put everything together and realized his own wife had called the constables.
As he ran across the field, Alexander did not bother going after him. A group of constables were already chasing him down.
Alexander returned to Anne’s side, and Christian regarded him coolly.
